1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an image forming apparatus and method. More particularly, the present general inventive concept relates to an image forming apparatus which easily provides a user with replacement printing options when the image forming apparatus does not support printing options set for an Extensible Markup Language (XML) Paper Specification (XPS) file, and an image forming method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image forming apparatuses are devices for printing print data generated by terminal devices such as computers onto recording media. Examples of such image forming apparatuses include copiers, printers, facsimile machines, and multifunction peripherals (MFP) implementing functions of the aforementioned machines in a single device.
Recent image forming apparatuses support a direct printing function for documents containing files in Portable Document Format (PDF), Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), or Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPG) format. The direct printing function indicates a function for performing printing directly by only transferring files to an image forming apparatus without requiring terminal devices, such as computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and digital cameras to execute separate applications.
Data supporting direct printing are provided in Extensible Markup Language (XML) Paper Specification (XPS) format. An XPS file is an electronic file having a fixed layout, in which a document format is preserved and file sharing is enabled, and in which resource needs for corresponding documents or jobs are systematized in a directory structure and data and resources, which record correlation therebetween using XML, are bound as a ZIP archive. The XPS file has a logical tree structure having a plurality of levels as illustrated in FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating the logical structure of an XPS file.
Referring to FIG. 1, information on a printing option set for an XPS file is defined in a PrinterTicket of the XPS file, and the PrinterTicket is hierarchically divided into a job level, a document level, and a page level. Each document level may include a plurality of documents, and each page level may include a plurality of pages. Different printing options may be set for each document or each page. More specifically, printing settings for the job level are applied to the corresponding job, printing settings for the document level are applied to the corresponding document, and printing settings for the page level are applied to the corresponding page.
However, since the printing options set for the XPS file utilize printing options of an image forming apparatus connected when the XPS file is generated, if another image forming apparatus directly prints the XPS file, unintended results may be output.
Moreover, when a user is aware that the printing options set for the XPS file are unavailable in a current image forming apparatus, the user must inconveniently identify and change unavailable printing option items one by one.